From the garden…

As summer arrives (Happy Summer Solstice!) here in Indiana all the beautiful red sails and butter crisp lettuce in the garden is getting ready to bolt, so this week we ate lots of salads in hopes of keeping any lettuce from going to waste. I always think its a shame that lettuce season is over before all the great garden salad toppings like cucumbers and tomatoes are ripe and ready.

Here’s a nights worth of lettuce straight from the garden. Aren’t the red sails just beautiful? They brighten up any salad.

I was getting bored with all the salad dressings around here so I decided to make up my own. Well actually I remembered there was a salad dressing recipe that I made a year a two ago that I really, really liked. So then I searched high and low for a paper copy or the original blog post, but came up empty handed.

So armed with the memory that the recipe had nuts (I have no recollection of the type), olive oil (or at least that what I think it had), and some sort of fresh herbs I decided to make my own “from memory”. Here’s what I came up with

Erin’s I’m-loosing-my- memory salad dressing

5TB olive oil or any other oil that you like

1/3 cup fresh oregano leaves (or basil if you prefer)

1/3 cup pecans

3 cloves of garlic more if you like a bit more zest!

1 green onion chopped

2 TB lemon juice

sea salt to taste

and a bit of water (probably between 2-4 TB)

Throw everything in a blender or food processor. Press the button and let it process. Add a bit of water here and there until you get to the desired consistency. Makes a little less than a pint depending on consistency. Enjoy has a dressing or veggie dip. I bet it would be good as crusty bread dip too!